Tag: Faith

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The P Word

“It’s a good thing we didn’t meet each other earlier than we did,” Peggy muses from time to time, “We wouldn’t have been ready for each other, and we might not have been interested.” She is right, for God steadily matures and transforms His children, using us in the moment while molding us for the future. For years, I had prayed earnestly for God to show me the woman who would live life with me, and at the ripe old age of 25, I was becoming discouraged and a little fearful. Then I began to date Peggy, and it wasn’t long before I realized she was God’s “yes” to me. He hadn’t been deaf to my prayers, rather He had been wise in His timing, for I hadn’t been even close to “ready” before then.

I’ve come to see patience as the time element of faith. Trusting God is not just a matter of believing that He can answer our prayers or even that He will; it is also a matter of relying on His perfect “when.” Confident in God’s faithfulness to speak, David also contented himself in the wisdom of His timetable: “Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.”1 To Israel’s king, patience was an integral part of faith in God, the complete submission of our timing to His: “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”2

Patience is difficult for us, for our natural inclination is to want what we want, and to want it now. In fact, impatience can be an obstacle to hearing God. Moreover, the prospect of developing patience looms in our minds as a long, arduous trial to be endured. “Don’t pray for patience,” we quip, “or you just might get it!” But patience is not of ourselves, rather it is fruit that emerges from within as we offer ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Patience can be as immediate and restful as recognizing that God’s wisdom is infinite, His purposes are pure, and His plan for us—including its timing—far exceeds our own desires. For God will act. It will be beautiful. And it’s worth the wait.

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.—Isaiah 64:4.

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.3 I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.4 Yes, Lord, may this be so.

1 Psalm 38:15
2 Psalm 130:5, emphasis added
3 Psalm 5:3
4 Micah 7:7

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The Still, Small Voice

Surgery awaited my father-in-law, which weighed heavily on my mother-in-law. As the day of the operation drew nearer, her worry and concern grew stronger. Then came to her a voice with a question as resounding as if uttered aloud, “Don’t you trust me, Eva?” The voice was gentle, an invitation to believe in the character and power of the One who spoke it. The voice was clear and memorable, like those we receive through our natural senses. The voice was enough—Mom rested from fear and trusted in God.

God delights in speaking to us. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”1 We hear God through Scripture, of course, and in fact, we experience God when His Spirit ignites His Word in our soul. Yet He also nudges us through other workings of His Holy Spirit in us, sometimes as an inaudible “still, small voice”2 inside. People describe it as a thought that comes not through us, but to us—different than our own thought and thought direction, and true. A friend once likened it to “an ‘intersecting thought’ that comes to me from a seemingly different direction; it interrupts my thought process and redirects me in a new way—God’s way.” Another depicted it as “a thought weightier than my own—clear, distinct, and weightier.”

Yet we all know that we’re fully capable of reading “God’s will” into our desires, which can send us down the deceptive path of self-will. This is why mature believers “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”3 Said one man to me, “I test a thought against what I know from the Bible: ‘Is it contradictory, or is it aligned?’ God’s voice will always be completely consistent with God’s Word, character, plan, purpose, and glory.” It is also helpful at times to seek insight from our Biblically grounded and trustworthy brothers or sisters in Christ, not for them to make decisions for us, but to speak truth and wisdom for our prayerful consideration.

Jesus said it was for our good that He return to the Father and send us the Holy Spirit. 4 “He lives with you and will be in you,”5 He assured His friends. “He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears.”6 In turn then, we quiet the voices of fear and doubt and listen for His words of authority and truth. For He who loves you lives in you, and He speaks. We can trust Him.

Father, how humbling the thought that You would speak to me. How great Your love must be! Calm me, that I would listen for Your voice; speak that I would hear You. I trust you. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Jeremiah 33:3
2 1 Kings 19:12 KJV
3 2 Corinthians 10:5
4 John 16:7
5 John 14:17
6 John 16:13

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This Is the Way; Walk in It

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

In hospice care and with only a few days remaining, our elderly friend was nearing the end of his battle with cancer, so we went to see him for what we knew would be the last time. Our visit with Bill and his wife Betty was tender and warm, though Bill’s energy had dwindled—when he did speak, it was only a whisper. At some point that afternoon, this thought silently, but certainly, came to me: “You and Betty will step away for a time, and Peggy will share the gospel with Bill.” I hadn’t experienced anything quite like this before, but the notion was so clear that I accepted it, waited, and watched. It wasn’t long before Betty said, “I need to go to the house to feed and walk the dog.” There it was, my cue! “Would you like me to drive you, Betty?” I asked. “Yes, I would like that.”

Now with only Bill and Peggy in the room, God continued to work. It was actually Bill who initiated the spiritual conversation! “I wish I knew if I was going up or down,” he said quietly, referring, of course, to heaven or hell. “You can know for sure,” Peggy said, and she proceeded to share in simple terms that eternal life is freely given to us when we receive it, trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and asking forgiveness for our sins. “Is this what you want?” she asked. “Yes,” he replied. They prayed together, and when they finished, Bill whispered to Peggy, “Tell Betty what I did.” Bill dies two days later. May he rest in peace; may he leap in joy.

God is working all around us all the time. So, why did He choose this moment to announce His plan to one person and then do it through others? I have no idea. Perhaps it was to clear the room for the sharing of His lifegiving gospel message and the gathering of one precious soul, or maybe it was so this story could be told for God’s glory and our hope. Certainly the entire moment exclaimed relationship!, for it was an honor to be part of it, even if my role was just to get out of the way.

Job’s friend Elihu once counseled him, “God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it.”1 I think he was partially right: God does speak, and He speaks in different ways. But can we perceive it? Yes, we can: we perceive His voice as He wills. So, draw near to Him, quiet yourself before Him, and listen for the voice that says, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Father, thank You for loving us so much that You speak to us. Quiet our soul, that we would be content to wait and ready to hear. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Job 33:14